The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

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Do they DESERVE it?

1. Michael Jackson: Thriller
12
6%
2. Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975
2
1%
3. Eagles: Hotel California
3
1%
4. Shania Twain: Come on Over
0
No votes
5. Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin IV
20
10%
6. Whitney Houston & Various Artists: "The Bodyguard" Soundtrack
0
No votes
7. Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
17
8%
8. AC/DC: Back in Black
14
7%
9. Adele: 21
0
No votes
10. Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill
1
0%
11. Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon
18
9%
12. The Beatles: 1
13
6%
13. ABBA: Gold: Greatest Hits
17
8%
14. Bob Marley & The Wailers: Legend
14
7%
15. Guns N’ Roses: Appetite for Destruction
4
2%
16. The Bee Gees & Various Artists: "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack
8
4%
17. Meat Loaf: Bat Out of Hell
5
2%
18. Metallica: Metallica
3
1%
19. Santana: Supernatural
0
No votes
20. Bruce Springsteen: Born in the U.S.A.
3
1%
21. Madonna: The Immaculate Collection
9
4%
22. Celine Dion: Let’s Talk About Love
0
No votes
23. Michael Jackson: Bad
3
1%
24. Pink Floyd: The Wall
4
2%
25. The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
31
15%
 
Total votes: 201

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Ranking Ted
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Ranking Ted » 19 Sep 2018, 22:09

The Red Heifer wrote:I know that Santana one seems inexplicable, but it was just the tried and true formula of getting current popular stars to sing while you play the guitar. It sucked everyone in from the old Santana fans of the 70s to the Matchbox Twenty fans of the day. I still hear "Smooth" at least three times a week.

It wasn’t that big in the UK. Popular, sure, but not anymore than any fairly big hit LP of the time and relatively easy to ignore. It sticks out on that list as everything else seems to have been more or less universally popular. It’s incongruous like those biggest grossing lists that have acts like Garth Brooks or Lil Wayne sitting beside Beatles, Elvis, Eagles, Michael Jackson, Madonna, etc. I couldn’t name you one song by them.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby The Modernist » 19 Sep 2018, 22:22

bobzilla77 wrote:I would say all those albums probably sold enough copies to get on a list of "albums that sold the most copies." Did they deserve it based on art merit? I wouldn't presume to know.

The Wall was a big deal in it's time, the last gasp of 70s rock. A stadium level band releases a conceptual double album that produces a number one single. As a result it sells a lot. What's your problem?


Problem..? Er I don't understand why it's still so popular! But I think on some level its fans see it as quite a profound statement as JC said.
I remember in the UK at the time they were seen as these dinosaurs, it was greeted with some derision by many, it wasn't seen as an event. I think for an entire generation in the UK Pink Floyd were sort of dismissed as these stadium rock leftovers from another decade. But they've certainly had the last laugh as they've lasted and got new generations of fans since.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby naughty boy » 19 Sep 2018, 22:25

Roger Waters/Pink Floyd are fucking HUGE all over Europe, I get sick of hearing students go on about his concerts and how moving they are, such a spectacle, etc. etc. etc.

Of course we in the Uk KNOW BETTER
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby naughty boy » 19 Sep 2018, 22:27

He's such a tedious old cunt, tho', honestly. He really is an old twat. There appears to be nothing musical about him at all. No colour.

That's one thing I could always get behind John Lydon about, how Pink Floyd were like accountants, the world's most boring rock band. A shame he (Lydon) appears to have changed his mind since.
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby The Modernist » 19 Sep 2018, 22:29

Eddie Shah environment wrote:Roger Waters/Pink Floyd are fucking HUGE all over Europe, I get sick of hearing students go on about his concerts and how moving they are, such a spectacle, etc. etc. etc.

Of course we in the Uk KNOW BETTER


Yeah I've had conversations about this with Kasper. He said growing up in Greece they were almost like this rite of passage, the one band everyone was into.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby never/ever » 19 Sep 2018, 22:39

It's more an inevitability, considering how long Floyd has been running and still is going through Gilmour and Waters. I was the fan in the family but when the Delicate Sound Of Thunder-tour came, both my parents and sister wanted to come along, just for the spectacle because they weren't into the music.
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Georgios » 19 Sep 2018, 23:25

Roger Waters can fuck right off.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby The Modernist » 19 Sep 2018, 23:31

He's quite a big Arsenal fan though, so he's not all bad.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Georgios » 19 Sep 2018, 23:32

Also The Bodyguard soundtracks success seems logical when you consider Houston had been one of the biggest pop stars on the planet since the mid-80's, and all three of her prior studio albums had shifted huge numbers. It wasn't a wholly unexpected conclusion to her career arc, up to that point.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Georgios » 19 Sep 2018, 23:33

The Modernist wrote:He's quite a big Arsenal fan though, so he's not all bad.


I despise Arsenal as well. Another piece of the puzzle falls into place.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby trans-chigley express » 20 Sep 2018, 00:13

DSotM’s longevity does not surprise me as nearly everyone that hears the album loves it, apart from a handful of cloth-eared gits on BCB. It seems to transcend age and musical leanings, it has huge across the board appeal. The fact that it still sounds amazing has a lot to do with, a 1973 album that could have been recorded yesterday. It’s also been re-bought many times over I expect. I’ve had at least 3 copies.

I’m actually a bit surprised Wish You Were Here didn’t sell just as many as it seems that everyone that likes Dark Side loves that one too

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby trans-chigley express » 20 Sep 2018, 05:20

The Modernist wrote:
fange wrote:
This is becoming like the musical version of virtue signalling - "Oh, i can't name any Eagles songs! That's how much i hate them!" :lol:

Really, you can't even admit to knowing 'Tequila Sunrise' or 'Witchy Woman'? The gentlemen doth protest too much, methinks. ;)


I wouldn't know either of those, although I knew pretty much all those listed by TG-E. Why do you assume people would know them?


I don't think either of those tracks are particularly well know in the UK. 'Tequila Sunrise' is a staple in Asian bars so that's probably where I've really got to know it

The one Eagles track just about every Brit will know is "Journey of the Sorceror" even if the title means nothing and it never appears on best ofs as it is the theme to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby fange » 20 Sep 2018, 06:26

I've never been to the UK, so i can only take you guys' word on the fact that the Eagles didn't - and maybe still don't - get as much popular attention or radio time as they did in other places around the world. But i've lived with folks from all over Australia, NZ, South Africa, Canada, Europe, and other E Asian countries in my time, and i learned very early that the Eagles are one of the biggest and best-known names in Rock music, hands down.
That's why i assume people from the UK who "know" music would have heard of their 10-or-so biggest songs, because most of the rest of the world sure bloody does.
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Georgios » 20 Sep 2018, 08:15

If you listen to the ''right'' radio stations in the UK you'll hear Heartache Tonight, One Of These Nights, Take It Easy, Take It To The Limit, New Kid In Town, Best Of My Love on a semi-regular basis. Which is most of there big US singles as well to be fair. Outside of Hotel California the one that gets the most airplay in my experience is Lyin' Eyes. Can't stand that song.

...Infact I would say most of them probably get more airplay than Hotel California due to the latter's length.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Rayge » 20 Sep 2018, 08:52

The Modernist wrote:He's quite a big Arsenal fan though, so he's not all bad.


Boring colourless twat supports the Arse. Who'da thunk it?
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby trans-chigley express » 20 Sep 2018, 08:57

Georgios wrote:If you listen to the ''right'' radio stations in the UK you'll hear Heartache Tonight, One Of These Nights, Take It Easy, Take It To The Limit, New Kid In Town, Best Of My Love on a semi-regular basis. Which is most of there big US singles as well to be fair. Outside of Hotel California the one that gets the most airplay in my experience is Lyin' Eyes. Can't stand that song.

...Infact I would say most of them probably get more airplay than Hotel California due to the latter's length.


Lyin' Eyes is over 6 mins long too. Seems more like 16 to me.

I've heard John Peel play The Last Resort

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Deebank » 20 Sep 2018, 13:05

The Modernist wrote:The Wall is another one I don't really get. I've never listened to it, never wanted to. They seemed like dinosaurs at the time, yet the rest of the world went mad for it. What an earth was the appeal?


'The rest of the world'! It was No 1 in the UK for ever, as was the single Brick in the Wall Part 2, so don't try to make out the UK coolly avoided the dubious charms of The Wall - because it quite demonstrably didn't.
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Bent Fabric » 20 Sep 2018, 13:16

trans-chigley express wrote:
Lyin' Eyes is over 6 mins long too. Seems more like 16 to me.



This is funny, because there is some interview with Henley or Frey (truly it doesn't fucking matter which) in which the narrator/interviewee boastfully claims that "It's a six minute song, but of course it feels much shorter cause that's how we designed it" - basically, exactly the sort of thing Ricky Gervais was always getting people like Ben Stiller to say on Extras when they portrayed some "worst version of themselves".

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby fange » 20 Sep 2018, 13:22

I wish the person who voted for 'Jagged Little Pill' would say what it is about that album that they love, because try as I have with the singles from it, Alanis and her music never touched me enough for me to ever buy it.
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby naughty boy » 20 Sep 2018, 13:23

The first single was fine.
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.


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